Evergreen (1999) Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Preparation
• Playing the game
  • Pre-game
    • Example with three players
  • Player turn summary
  • 1. Turn the sand clock
  • 2. Play influence cards
    • a. Card placement
    • b. Influence changes
    • Example continued from the pre-game
  • 3. Changing the hit record
  • 4. Holding a concert
    • Continuing the example
  • Gala concert
  • 5. End of a player's turn
• Game end
  • Final concert
• Tips

Contents

• 1 sand clock
• 1 rule booklet
• 78 influence cards with the values 1-13 in each of the artists colors
• 6 artist disks show the color of the artists and their current popularity (5-12)
• 1 hit record disk shows which artist has a current hit record.

Before the first game, carefully remove the disks from the frames and assemble the 6 artist disks and the hit record disk. After removing the disks from the frame, match the large disks to the small disks of the same color. Then place the small disk face up on the side of the matching large disk with the tone arm. Carefully, push the connecting pin through the central hole in both disks and fasten with the plastic fastener.

Preparation

• Place all 7 disks in the center of the table so all can see them.
• Position the small disk on the six artist disks so that the tone arm points to the 5.
• Position the small disk on the hit record disk so that the tone arm points to the orange space with the figure of a record.
• All influence cards are used when playing with 5 or 6 players. However, with fewer players, remove the following cards and put them in the box:
  • with 2 players, remove the values 6 to 13 from each artist and
  • with 3 or 4 players, remove the values 10 to 13 from each artist.
• Shuffle the remaining influence cards and deal 13 cards face down to each player. Any remaining cards are returned face down to the box (the players may not look at them). The players may now look at their cards; they are the only cards they will receive in the game.
• Place the sand clock near the middle of the table.
• Choose one player to keep score. He will need paper and pencil to record the scores.

Playing the game

Pre-game

The starting player and the initial distribution of the artist disks is determined in the pre-game.

• First, the players select three influence cards from their hands and put them face down on the table. There are no restrictions regarding the cards a player may choose except that they must come from the players hand.
• After all players have chosen three cards and placed them face down on the table, the players turn them face up simultaneously. Each player puts his three cards side-by-side so that all players can easily see them. The cards represent the influence a player has on an artist. During the game, players will play cards on top of these, but a player may not have more than three face up cards.
• Each player sums the values of his three face up influence cards, ignoring, for the moment, which artists they represent. The player with the lowest total is the starting player.
• He takes the hit record disk and the sand clock from the center of the table. If two or more players tie with the lowest total, the starting player is the player among them closest to the left of the dealer.
• Next the starting player distributes the artist disks. He places each artists disk in front of the player who has the largest influence on that artist. The influence of a player on an artist is the total of all influence cards for this artist in front of that player. If two or more players tie with the largest influence for an artist, the player with the highest single influence card for that artist gets the disk.
• If no player has an influence card for an artist, that artists disk remains, for the time being, in the center of the table.

Example with three players

Anna, Joe, and Carla reveal their three cards. Annas green 9 is higher than Carlas green 6; therefore, Anna gets the green disk.

Joe played the only a lilac influence card, so he gets the lilac disk. Joes two blue cards sum to 10, which is more than Annas blue 3+1, so Joe also gets the blue disk.

Carla has the only yellow card and gets the yellow disk. Since her blue and green cards are not high enough, she does not get another disk.

Since no player played a brown or an orange influence card, the brown and orange disks remain in the center of the table. All artist disks are set to 5.

The total of Annas face up influence cards is 13; Joes cards also total 13 and Carlas total 14. Since Anna and Joe are tied and Joe dealt, Anna is the starting player. She takes the sand clock and the hit record disk.

Player turn summary

The starting player begins. On a players turn, he turns the sand clock and plays one to three influence cards. After playing each card, the player checks to see if the influence on any artist has changed. If it has, the player moves the artists disk to the player who now has the highest influence on the artist. After playing the influence cards, the player may change the hit record disk. Finally, the player decides whether to hold a concert or not. If he holds a concert, it is scored. After his turn, play continues with the player to his left.

1. Turn the sand clock

At the beginning of his turn, the player turns the sand clock over. The player must finish his turn, excluding the scoring of a concert should he choose to hold one, before the sand clock runs out.

If a player finishes his turn before the sand clock has run out, the next player may use this time for his turn. When the remaining sand has fallen, the new player turns the sand clock and must finish his turn before the sand runs out.

2. Play influence cards

The player must play one to three influence cards each turn. After each card is played, the player must immediately announce whether the playing of the card has changed which player exerts the largest influence on the artists.

a. Card placement

The player takes an influence card from his hand and places it face up on any face up influence card on the table. It should be placed to completely cover the underlying card, which has no further impact in the game. The card may be played on one of the players own cards or on any other players card. The card need not match the underlying card in any way: neither in color or number.

b. Influence changes

When an influence card is played, it can affect the influence on zero, one or two artists. The player should know what the changes, if any, will be. Influence change can occur in one of two ways:

• The influence represented by the underlying card is lost to that player.
• The card played adds influence for the artist represented to the same player.

The player playing the card announces any changes, describing the reasons: either loss or gain of influence. The player then moves the appropriate artist disks to the player who now holds the most influence over the affected artists.

When the player moves a disk to a new player, he changes the value of the disk by rotating the small disk in the counterclockwise direction to the next number. For example, 5 becomes 6, but 12 becomes 5. If the disk is still in the center of the table because it had not yet been claimed, the new player takes it, but leaves it on number 5.

When a player plays several influence cards, he may affect the same artist with each card played. When this occurs, the disk is moved and its value changed with each movement. For example, a disk could move as many as three times on a single players turn changing from 10 to 12 to 5!

When a card is played that covers the only face up influence card for an artist, the disk stays with the player who had it. The disk is not returned to the center of the table. The disk will remain with that player until an influence card for that artist is played. When that occurs, the disk is moved with its value changed as normal.

Example continued from the pre-game

Anna plays her first card. She places her brown 1 on Joes blue 8. Now Anna and Carla each have an influence of 4 on blue. As Carla has the higher single blue card, Anna moves the blue disk to Carla, changing its value to 6. She also gives Joe the brown disk from the center of the table as he is the first to have brown influence. The value remains at 5 since the disk is not moving from one player to another.

Now she plays her second card. Anna decides to play a second card. She places her lilac 9 on Carlas blue 4. Now, Carla has the largest influence on lilac and Anna moves the lilac disk to Carla, changing its value to 6. Because she covered Carlas blue 4, Anna now has the largest influence on blue and takes the blue disk from Carla, changing its value to 7.

Anna plays a third card. Anna decides to play still another card. She places her orange 7 on her blue 1. As Anna still has the most influence on blue, she keeps the blue disk. She now takes the orange disk from the center of the table as she has the only orange played so far. Anna has now played three cards and, thus, may play no more.

3. Changing the hit record

After playing influence cards, the player may change the hit record disk. The player may rotate the hit record disk one space to the right or left. The hit record disk shows which artist now has a hit record.

In our example, Anna turns the small disk to the blue space on the hit record disk.

4. Holding a concert

At the end of his turn, the player must decide, within the run time of the sand clock, whether to hold a concert or not. In the whole game, each player may hold just three concerts and will also participate in the final concert. Also, he may choose one of these four concerts as his Gala concert.

If the player decides to hold a concert, the sand clock is no longer considered; the player may score the concert without a time limit.

Concerts are scored by adding the values of all artist disks a player has. If one of those artists has the current hit record, that score is doubled before being added to the total.

Continuing the example

Anna decides to hold her first concert. The value of the blue disk is doubled as the hit record disk shows blue. For her blue disk, Anna receives 14 points and she receives 5 points each for the orange and the green disks. Thus, Anna scores a total of 24 points. Joe and Carla are not affected by Annas concert.

Gala concert

Each player may designate one of his three concerts or the final concert as his Gala concert. This means that he doubles all his points for this concert. The decision must be made at the time of the concert and cannot be changed if a later concert generates a higher score.

In our example, if Anna designated her first concert as her Gala concert, she would score 48 points instead of the 24 she chose. Since she hopes to have a higher scoring concert later in the game, she chooses to wait for her Gala concert.

5. End of a player's turn

After the player finishes his turn by scoring a concert or deciding not to hold one, he gives the sand clock and the hit record disk to the player on his left.

If the player did not play an influence card by the time the sand clock ran out, his right-hand neighbor takes a random card from the player's hand and places it on the middle card in front of the slow player. As with a normal play, this may cause an influence change. If it does, the disks are moved as normal. Afterwards, the player's turn ends immediately with no chance to hold a concert.

Game end

The game ends when the last player with an influence card plays his last card. After that player finishes his turn, which may include holding a concert, the final concert is held.

Final concert

Each player adds the values of all disks before him on the table. During the final concert, the hit record disk does not double an artist's score; each disk counts only its value. A player may designate this final concert as his Gala concert and double his total score for the concert. The scores of the other players are not affected by this. In fact, several players could choose the final concert as their Gala concert.

Each player adds the results of his concerts. The player with the highest total wins the game. If several players tie, the winner is the player with the highest score in the final concert.

Tips

Although players may play one to three cards each turn, players should avoid playing their cards too early. If many players do this, one player may have the opportunity to play several turns alone, playing one card at a time and scoring huge concerts.

As shown in the example, the best play is often to cover an opponent's high card rather than placing a card on one of your own cards. In this way, even players with many low-valued cards will find a way to score big concerts.